SETTING UP A SHOW

Preparing a fireworks show is an all-day effort, though the big displays like the Macy's show in New York, where Pyro Spectaculars will shoot fireworks from barges as well as the Brooklyn Bridge, can take many days to prepare.

For community shows, trucks that have been loaded with fireworks, other supplies and a blueprint for the show are picked up by pyro technician drivers first thing in the morning on July 4.

SETUP: Racks are set up; if necessary, wooden boxes are built to house tubes that will be held in place with sand. The biggest tubes might be placed in trash cans filled with sand. Then the fireworks come out and the wiring begins.

WIRING: Every effect must be wired to a control panel. Numbered shells are placed in tubes and wired to corresponding numbers on the circuit board. Circuit boards are plugged into the main firing controller.

FOILING: Tinfoil is laid over the open tubes to prevent sparks from falling in and lighting the shell prematurely.

TESTING, TESTING: The network is checked for loose connections or shells that were overlooked or became disconnected.

COUNTDOWN:Technicians suit up in protective gear, one fires the show, others are stationed around the site to watch for trouble.

TEAR-DOWN: After the site cools off, the crew collects the trash, including spent shells, dismantles and disassembles the gear and reloads the truck.

Jim Souza, head of the Rialto fireworks firm Pyro Spectaculars, was on the phone in early June, talking about a fireworks show. A 2015 fireworks show.

That’s not unusual.

“I was on the phone last year talking to suppliers about shows next year,” Souza said.

This year’s Fourth of July extravaganzas – the company is putting on more than 400 fireworks displays from sea to sea – already are set to go.

Not that there isn’t a lot of work to be done between now and Friday.

“Four hundred shows means 400 trucks, 400 drivers, 400 sites, 400 set-ups, and each site has its own uniqueness,” Souza said. “We’re here to give everyone a great show. And behind the scenes, there’s a lot of work that goes into that.”

And every year, Pyro Spectaculars strives to offer something new.

“We always try to have something different,” Souza said. “This year there will be butterflies, dice, flying dragons, jellyfish, starfish and a lot of whistling effects and flying stars.”

The Souza family has been in the fireworks business through five generations, starting in the early 1900s when Manuel de Sousa brought his family to the San Francisco Bay Area from the San Miguel Islands of Portugal. He had created fireworks shows for Portuguese community celebrations and brought the tradition with him to California.

His grandson, Bob Souza, founded Pyro Spectaculars in 1979 and took the family business from cottage industry to international player in the world of fireworks shows.

THIS YEAR’S SHOWS

Pyro Spectaculars shows this Independence Day include six in the Inland area, the biggest of which will be at the University of Redlands, Jim Souza said.

But the one he’s most proud of will be the annual Macy’s show, which this year will take place on the East River in New York and will feature the Brooklyn Bridge.

“We’ll be firing off the Brooklyn Bridge,” he said. “It took us two years to get the permitting for that.”

The Rialto company also will put on the Big Bay Boom in San Diego, which two years ago was the scene of a spectacular error that caused an 18-minute show to go up in one enormous 15-second blast, five minutes before the show was supposed to start.

The company that made the mistake, which was not Pyro Spectaculars, gave San Diego a free show last year, but this year, “they’ve got us back,” Jim Souza said.

Pyro Spectaculars has a long list of achievements to brag about – three Olympics, the Boston Pops Fourth, San Francisco’s Millennium Celebration, Ronald Reagan’s inauguration and the 100th and 125th birthdays of the Statue of Liberty.

In the past couple of years the company has added art installations to its accomplishments.

In 2012, Pyro Spectaculars collaborated with Cai Guo-Qiang, a New York-based artist known for gunpowder drawings and installations, for an explosion event outside the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

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